Kingsman: The Secret Service Review

Hello :-)

Spy films are a rather interesting breed. You’ve got your classics like The Ipcress File and North by Northwest then more modern fare like the Bourne Series, The Mission Impossible movies and finally the decades spanning stalwart of the Bond films. The latter in particular, is taken to task in the latest genre pastiche from Matthew Vaughn, Kingsman: The Secret Service (or just Kingsman because I’m lazy).

Kingsman follows Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), an underachiever who is wasting his vast potential on a life of crime. Eggsy is selected by Harry Hart aka Galahad (Colin Firth) to undergo a training programme to select the newest member of the Kingsmen, a British secret service who work independently of the government.

Meanwhile, the Kingsmen are investigating Internet billionaire Richmond Valentine, who has announced a world-wide giveaway of SIM cards that allow free phone calls and internet access. The Kingsmen suspect him of being involved in a number of disappearances of the rich, famous and influential, a case that Harry goes to investigate.

Just to set my stall out early, I totally loved this film. It takes the same sense of fun, charm and batshit craziness that made Kick Ass such a breath of fresh air and applies it effortlessly to the spy genre.

Kingsman is another adaptation from Vaughn of a Comic by Mark Millar and, as hesitant as I am to suggest that creatives should find a niche and stick to it, I would be perfectly happy if Vaughn and Millar kept this co-creative relationship for the rest of their careers. Millar’s stories seem to lend themselves perfectly to Vaughns genre bending tendencies and in turn, Vaughn is excellent at turning Millar’s comics into a cinematic experience.

This is definitely Vaughn’s vision and what a wonderfully violent, deliciously witty vision it is. It plays a little bit like a Matthew Vaughn greatest hits: it’s got the East End-eyness of Layer Cake, the mansion based training montage from X-Men: First Class, and ballsy violence we’ve seen from Kick Ass. Whilst this is all present and correct it’s remarkable how new those elements feel when you apply them to a spy movie making Kingsman simultaneously familiar and fresh.

The cast are excellent and really commit to Kingsman’s ‘dialled up to 11’ vibe. Colin Firth’s gentlemanly shtick fits perfectly in the world of Kingsman. He’s as reliable a screen presence as he ever was, slipping seamlessly from suave to sweary to lethal killing machine. Also enjoyable are Mark Strong as Merlin head of intelligence and training at Kingsman, Michael Caine as Arthur/Chester King (in a nod to the aforementioned The Ipcress File) and newcomer Sophie Cookson as fellow recruit Roxy. I feel a mention should also go to Jack Davenport who, for my money, is not in enough things, especially here…

Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine is pretty enjoyable. Aside from the fact it’s Samuel L. Jackson doing Samuel L. Jackson, it’s a nice performance albeit with an occasionally distracting lisp. He hits an interesting balance between new money seeking acceptance from old money and full on cackling bay guy.

However, Taron Egerton’s Eggsy is the films focal point and a bang up job he does too. As an actor he seems to have that rare, universally likable appeal that, coupled with a flair for on screen action and a clear confidence in his craft, makes him eminently watchable. I’m hoping for big things from him in the future.

The film has had some criticism lobbied at it for a questionable joke about anal sex towards the end of the film. I can see what they were trying to do, but instead as coming off as a subversion of the double entendres synonymous with the Bond franchise it feels jarring and a tad inappropriate. That said, when a film delivers as much as this, a minor lapse of judgement is easily forgiven.

As with Vaughn’s previous films, Kingsman works because although it serves to send up the genre, at its heart lies a great affection for spy films. Boasting a game cast, plentiful gags and gloriously OTT action, Kingsman can talk the talk and walk the Oxford-clad walk.  

Kingsman: The Secret Service is in cinemas now.

Let’s have a look at some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. So, unless you’ve been living on the Moon it can’t have escaped you attention that Sony and Marvel have reached an agreement to work together on future Spider-man ventures. What we know is that a new Spider-Man will be introduced in an unspecified MCU movie before 2017 (the smart money seems to be on Captain America: Civil War). Then, after 2017, Sony will release the next instalment in its own Spider-Man series using the same actor.

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that this news has been universally well received. I’m sad that Andrew Garfield has been caught in the crossfire of all this, I’ve never made any bones about that fact that I prefer him to Tobey Maguire, but he’s a brilliant actor I’m sure he won’t be unemployed for too long. Aside from that every other outcome from this has the potential to be brilliant. Exciting times for Spidey fans:-)

That’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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